Finding an AWS-8Q in my first playthrough was a pretty big turning point for how I played.

Obviously, I took it out myself the few times but didn't really click with it. Still I really liked these in MWO and played a 9M for a long time but being locked to 48.6 kph in MW5 just felt too slow for my liking. It was seeing my AI pilots that made me realize how they fit best for me. Sure, the AI lancemates don't take the big 3xPPC shots that rip mechs apart like I was doing but the range means that they usually start shooting first and the pinpoint damage means that they're dealing decent chunks of damage when they hit.

I ended up with a pair of 8Q's that saw A LOT of action in the mid to late game. Combined them with a Banshee-3M (variant might be wrong) that also had a pair of PPCs and it was just glorious to watch them go.

You can put that 3x PPC on the Black Knight as well and load it up with DHS. Basically, anything that can destroy cockpits is good and 3 PPC or Goose + PPC or anything like that is great.

I've taken a liking to some brawlers like the Quickdraw, Stalker and Battlemaster Hero in particular. Put MPLs in there with SRM4+A and you can basically 2-shot most mechs. If you have DHS, you can keep firing until an entire lance is dead and it happens real fast. Plus, the Battlemaster can run at 64 kph.

You can put that 3x PPC on the Black Knight as well and load it up with DHS. Basically, anything that can destroy cockpits is good and 3 PPC or Goose + PPC or anything like that is great.

As I still have very few DHS, and a 3 PPC Black Knight overheats like crazy with regular SHS, I tried a 2PPC+4MLAS and it works well.. Just finished the "Lock and load" campaign mission with it yesterday..

I ran an Awesome 9M with 3 ppc's a lot throughout the end game as part of my 64kph crew for assassinations or raids(if i didnt feel like cheesing it with my cicada hero). I wouldnt drive it but the AI did ok with it. It went nice with the banshee hero and a couple of cyclops heros at keeping pace and having that long range punch to keep the repair bills down.

I prefer the ballistic mechs with dual gauss variants being my favorite for headshotting goodness but I could see some mid game awesomes doing some work. Stalkers and black knights also fit that weight range pretty well and can boat some hurt with enough cooling to keep the AI from being useless but their sheer number of hardpoints lends them to bigger alpha brawly type builds which raises your repair bills.

I ran an Awesome 9M with 3 ppc's a lot throughout the end game as part of my 64kph crew for assassinations or raids(if i didnt feel like cheesing it with my cicada hero). I wouldnt drive it but the AI did ok with it. It went nice with the banshee hero and a couple of cyclops heros at keeping pace and having that long range punch to keep the repair bills down.

I prefer the ballistic mechs with dual gauss variants being my favorite for headshotting goodness but I could see some mid game awesomes doing some work. Stalkers and black knights also fit that weight range pretty well and can boat some hurt with enough cooling to keep the AI from being useless but their sheer number of hardpoints lends them to bigger alpha brawly type builds which raises your repair bills.

In the mid-game, I actually find a 3PPC Awesome superior to a rare 2Gauss+ERPPC King Crab... although the King Crab and any mech with Dual Gauss performs better, those Gauss riffles are precious, rare things, and loosing one, or even it's ammo, is an automatic save-game load. These weapon combos are the best assassination mechs, and are very useful in other modes where you need to kill targets quickly..

Yeah, I wouldn't constantly bring the triple PPC or Goose+PPC mechs to every mission type. I keep the Brawlers for Defense and Warzones. The long-range mechs belong in Demolition and Raid. The mix of the two perform well in Assassination and in MQ.